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Posted by Paul-the-other on 19:40:27 02/19/06
On Saturday I toured the ENPark for another look-see. It was 52 and a beautiful dawn. Bird life was pretty much the same as has been adequately reported on this board for the last two months. I was impressed with a low/slow fly-by by a northern harrier at Lucky Hammock. Flamingo is dry, very dusty, and somewhat birdless. Eco-pond is such a sadness. The center island is all torn up and the few ibis there do the best they can with roosting. Some just stand at the water edge. I wonder what became of the red-shouldered hawk nest that was in the middle of that island? The board walk is totally out of commission and all the shore plants are dead. The beachfront has been reworked by nature and at rising high I saw no shore birds along the beachfront but fisherpeople were present and that could account for bird absence. A few campers were in the trailer area and several of the "tenters" were searching about for some green grass and some shade. Flamingo lacked the colorful gay confusion of camping from years past.
Pineland camp ground was pleasant and I met some folks from Germany that were fascinated by a palm warbler that repeatedly came back to a picnic table to feed on bread crumbs. Suddenly two cardinal and three towhees appeared and the fight was on. Chirping and chipping they were in and out of the scrub palms, varnish leafs and wax myrtles. Funny thing, they didn't seem all that upset--more like playing at chasing each other. But it was good to see the towhees. That is a bird that was daily sight at old Lauderdale-by-the-sea in the mid-50s. I haven't seen one in Broward county since 1960. Brings back memories.
I spent some time in the afternoon with Johnny and Aida. Johnny worked diligently at photographing the cormorants that are running all over the place with walking catfish hanging from their beaks. It takes time to swallow one of those things and while each bird tried another bird would come in and steal it. The birds could care less about the visitors--they just chased one another between the people. It was a first class "cop chase scene from Charlie Chaplin."
The phoebe (mentioned below post) was there and followed the same routine. Down to the water, grab a bug, back to the same perch. The photographers were thrilled to the view of a black crowned night heron that took up a station on a solitary stick just 25 feet off the boardwalk. There it posed for at least an hour, full sun, great angle, a perfect setup. No bragging rights on that picture. It was a film/digital chip shot!
A white morph of the Great Blue also made for a show. It stood for about an hour just watching the people. No big deal I suppose except it was standing on the coral wall and people passed it at 10 feet distance.
The water level is dropping rapidly and most of the fish are gasping for oxygen. Fish eat fish, birds eat fish and soon the vultures will be eating the remains. The cycle of life.
The anhinga and cormorant nests are "buzzing" with activity. There are also two green heron nests visible from the boardwalk but not great for photo shoots.
Research raod show an increasing number of catbirds and cardinals. It isn't very scientific but I drive the road at moderate speed and count the number of catbirds and cardinals that break cover and cross the road. Two years past I counted 55 cardinals from the research center back to the stop sign. That, I thought, was phenomenal. This year it was 12 and catbirds were 7. Scoped for nuthatches and bluebirds but that was no luck.
I missed the sounds of osprey at Flamingo. One nest is active atop the weather tower. The freshwater tour boat is operational. I didn't see any activity on the bay side. The ramp is open to the bay so soon we will be able to check out snake bight from the water side.
Paurotis pond has many nests but viewing was hard as the birds were low in the nests. Roseattes came and went as did GBherons. Despite a twenty minute search no warblers, flycatchers, or like appeared. The crows came and amused themselves by eating the bugs from the front bumper. I suppose life is tough for them too.
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